when jerald spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't just decided to desert them.
it wasn't easy, because she didn't have her father's "world of warcraft" password and the game's publisher couldn't help her. eventually, melissa allen spangenberg reached her father's friends by asking around online for the "guild" he belonged to.
one of them, chuck pagoria in morgantown, ky., heard about spangenberg's death three weeks later. pagoria had put his absence down to an argument among the gamers that night.
"i figured he probably just needed some time to cool off," pagoria said. "i was kind of extremely shocked and blown away when i heard the reason that he hadn't been back. nobody had any way of finding this out."
with online social networks becoming ever more important in our lives, they're also becoming an important element in our deaths. spangenberg, who died suddenly from an abdominal aneurysm at 57, was unprepared, but others are leaving detailed instructions. there's even a tiny industry that has sprung up to help people wrap up their online contacts after their deaths.
when robert bryant's father died last year, he left his son a little black usb flash drive in a drawer in his home office in lawton, okla. it was underneath a cup his son had once given him for his birthday. the drive contained a list of contacts for his son to notify, including the administrator of an online group he had been in.
"it was kind of creepy because i was telling all these people that my dad was dead," bryant said. "it did help me out quite a bit, though, because it allowed me to clear up a lot of that stuff and i had time to help my mom with whatever she needed."
site called deathswitch
david eagleman, a neuroscientist at the baylor college of medicine in houston, has had plenty of time to think about the issue.
"i work in the world's largest medical center, and what you see here every day is people showing up in ambulances who didn't expect that just five minutes earlier," he said. "if you suddenly die or go into a coma, there can be a lot of things that are only in your head in terms of where things are stored, where your passwords are."
he set up a site called deathswitch, where people can set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if they don't check in at intervals they specify, like once a week. for $20 per year, members can create up to 30 e-mails with attachments like video files.
it's not really a profit-making venture, and eagleman isn't sure about how many members it has — "probably close to a thousand." nor does he know what's in the e-mails that have been created. until they're sent out, they're encrypted so that only their creators can read them.
if deathswitch sounds morbid, there's an alternative site: slightly morbid. it also sends e-mail when a member dies, but doesn't rely on them logging in periodically while they're alive. instead, members have to give trusted friends or family the information needed to log in to the site and start the notification process if something should happen.
the site was created by mike and pamela potter in colorado springs, colo. they also run a business that makes software for online games. pamela said they realized the need for a service like this when one of their online friends, who had volunteered a lot of time helping their customers on a web message board, suddenly disappeared.
he wasn't dead: three months later, he came back from his summer vacation, which he'd spent without internet access. by then, the potters had already had slightlymorbid.com up and running for two weeks.
a third site with a similar concept plans to launch in april. legacy locker will charge $30 per year. it will require a copy of a death certificate before releasing information.
peter vogel, in tampa, fla., was never able to reach all of his stepson nathan's online friends after the boy died last year at age 13 during an epileptic seizure.
a few years earlier, someone had hacked into one of the boy's accounts, so vogel, a computer administrator, taught nathan to choose passwords that couldn't be easily guessed. he also taught the boy not to write passwords down, so nathan left no trail to follow.
vogel himself has a trusted friend who knows all his important login information. as he points out, having access to a person's e-mail account is the most important thing, because many web site passwords can be retrieved through e-mail.
vogel joked that he hoped the only reason his friend would be called on to use his access within "the next hundred years or so" would be if vogel forgets his own passwords.
but, he said, "as nathan has proven, anything can happen any time, even if you're only 13."
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杰拉德.斯潘根伯格突然病倒，正在登陆在线游戏的过程中就去世了。他女儿登陆了自己的账号，想要告诉父亲的游戏好友，父亲不想丢下他们。
这个不是简单的事情，因为她根本不知道父亲在“魔兽世界”中的密码。游戏出版商也是爱莫能助。最后梅丽莎 艾伦 斯潘根伯格在线咨询了父亲生前曾参与的一个群，才联系到了父亲的朋友。
其中一个是肯塔基州摩根敦的查克 帕格利亚。三周后，他听说了斯潘根伯格去世的消息。当晚，帕格利亚就把杰拉德不在的消息发布在了游戏讨论区。
“我想他可能是需要时间冷静一下，”帕格利亚说。“我听说他没再上线的确切原因后，我有点震惊。别人也没法知道是怎么回事。”
在线的社交网络在我们的生活中变得日趋重要，同时也成了我们死后生活的一个重要部分。斯潘根伯格因腹部主动脉瘤突然辞世，享年57岁。他自己都没有预料到。但有的人却留下了详细的指示。甚至帮助去世的人总结他们的在线联系人，目前已经如雨后春笋般的发展成为了一项产业。
罗伯特 布莱恩特的父亲是去年去世的。他父亲在俄克拉荷马州劳顿的家中办公，在抽屉里为他留下了一个黑色的u盘。就压在一个杯子下面，那是他给父亲的生日礼物。u盘里面为他留下了需要通知的联系人名单，其中包括父亲所在的一个群的管理员。
“听起来有点可怕，因为我要告诉这些人我父亲去世的消息。”布莱恩特说。“不过也确实对我帮助不小，这样我可以处理一下这些事情，然后有时间给母亲帮帮忙。”
名为“生死转换器”的网站
大卫 伊格曼是休斯顿贝勒医学院的神经科专家。他曾经花费大量的时间来考虑这个问题。
“我目前工作的地方是世界上最大的医疗中心。每天看到的就是救护车拉来的人，五分钟以前他们自己也没有预料到会这样。”他说，“如果你突然亡故或者昏迷，肯定有很多的东西是只存在你大脑中的，比如什么东西放在何处了，你的密码是多少。”
他创建了一个名为“生死转换器”网站。在这里可以写邮件，如果在你自己设定的时间段里没有查看的话，这些邮件将自动发送出去，比如说一周一次。会员每年收费20美元，可以创建30封含有视频附件的邮件。
这也不是赢利性的，伊格曼也不太确定目前有多少会员了，“大概能有一千人。”他也不知道里面都有些什么邮件。除非这些邮件发出去了，否则只有创建者可以读，因为都已经加密。
如果你觉得“生死转换器”网站比较吓人的话，那这里还有一个呢：“有点吓人”网站。这个网站也是会员死后发邮件，但是不需要他们活着的时候定期登陆。但是会员需要填写他信任的朋友或家人的信息才能登陆，如果出了什么事，就会启动通知程序。
该网站的创建人是科罗拉多州斯普林斯的迈克和帕梅拉 波特。他们做着为在线游戏编软件的事情。帕梅拉说他们留心到这种服务的需求，是缘于一个在线的朋友。这个朋友经常自愿帮助他们网络留言版上的客户。但是突然有一天没有了踪迹。
这个不是去世了，三个月后，他度完暑假回来了。度假期间，他不能上网。当时波特夫妇已经创建了“有点吓人”网站，并且运营了两周了。
第三个类似主题的网站计划几年四月份面世。“遗产锁”将每年收费30美元，发布信息前需要死亡证明的复印件。
皮特 沃格尔住在佛罗里达州的坦帕。他13岁的养子内森去年死于癫痫发作，此后他就没法联系到孩子的网友了。
几年前，有人盗取了内森的一个账户。身为计算机管理员的沃格尔教给内森选择不容易辨识的密码。他也教给孩子不要把密码写出来，所以现在也是无迹可寻了。
沃格尔自己的一个非常信任的朋友知道他所有的登陆信息。同时他还指出登陆一个人的邮件账户是最重要的，因为很多网站密码都是通过邮件获取的。
沃格尔开玩笑说，他希望他朋友登陆他的邮箱的唯一理由就是，百年后他自己忘记了密码。
但是他说，“内森的事情说明一切都可能发生，哪怕你只有13岁。”